One of the most exciting things about the internet is the wealth of available information. With a few clicks, a wide variety of skills are available to learn. This can be even more fun if you have a group of similarly inclined friends to learn with you. Here are just a few of the cool things you can learn online.

Play an instrument

While instruments often require lessons to become truly proficient, online courses and videos can help you develop your base knowledge of music theory while learning how to read music. Both of these will put you well on your way to learning how to play an instrument. Playing an instrument, in turn, can help reduce stress and heighten cognitive functioning. The burst of dopamine released when you play a piece you love provides the feeling of a high that further heightens the emotional connection you may already have to the music. This can be a great activity for a group as well, because playing music has been shown to increase feelings of connection while releasing oxytocin, a hormone associated with bonding.

Online tools can be helpful in determining what musical instrument to play. First, how difficult would you like it to be to learn how to play the instrument? While some, like the piano, can sound decent in the hands of a beginner, others, like the violin, take months for new students to begin to master. Next, what kind of music are you interested in playing? If you like to listen to heavy metal, you may not be as interested in playing the oboe.

Similarly, if you like versatility, violins and saxophones can be used in many different contexts. Finally, what are your physical capabilities? Tubas and stand-up basses require a certain amount of height or strength, while a ukulele is small, lightweight, and portable. It might be helpful to swing by a local music store to see these instruments up close to select the right one.

Once you’ve decided on an instrument, search for lessons online. There are a wide variety of teachers dedicated to different instruments, genres, and techniques. Find one that’s right for you!

Learn a Practical Skill Like Sewing

Basic sewing skills are something everyone should have, but unlike in generations past, many people grow up never learning even the basics, such as stitching a torn hem or adding a button to a shirt. Whether you want to make your own clothing or just express yourself creatively, there are plenty of great online resources that can help you get started. This collection from HomeAdvisor is a great place to start, as it offers resources for everything from sewing machine safety to working with different fabrics to beginner-friendly projects.

Take an Online Course

Many universities and colleges offer online mini-courses on their specialty subjects. Often curated and designed by experts in the field, mini-courses are a great way to get your feet wet in a particular subject without committing all the way to a full degree plan. Many of these courses are significantly discounted -- or even free!

Learn a New Language

Similarly, many language courses are available online. While many of these have an associated fee, they typically are great for beginners and intermediate students alike, offering a range of learning methods, including photographic recognition, audio cues, and direct interaction. If you just want to start educating yourself without taking a formal course, check out some of the instructional language videos on YouTube.

Develop Your Career Skills

You can also use this time to develop skills that can help you in your career. If you aren’t familiar with basic software, search for an introduction article. Several websites and apps offer timed games to help you develop your coding and website development skills. This can become a fun activity with friends to try to beat each other’s times. Many of these also offer more complex courses that end with a certification, which can be a great boon for your career advancement.

There is no end to the fun skills you can learn online. With a few clicks and an internet connection, the results are limited only by your creativity.

*Julie Morris is a life and career coach who stumbled upon our website and asked if she could write some articles of which we happily obliged. She runs her own website and we highly recomend if you you swing over and check her out at http://juliemorris.org/

What can we say...............we are keeping our mouths shut, it might not be big news to most of our friends out there, but for the band if everything works out then we will be taking a big step in the next direction, so hopes and prayers we get what we are going after yawl. until this weekend JBR

Well, we wanted to send our condolences to a local legend in the triad music community, last Thursday, local bassist and close friend of a couple members of Jukebox Revolver passed away by the name of Chris Carroll, for those of you who never heard him or missed out we apologize but for those of you who did you can see just how great a musician he was, and as Danny points out he was equally great as a person. He was a great man in the truest sense of the word great, he embodied that word and gave a new definition of what it mean. He was kind, everyone we meet that speaks of him talks about how he greeted them with a smile, a sincere smile whether it was your first time meeting him or your thousandth time meeting him. He was generous and giving, and he gave more to the local music scene than few have before and doubt few will ever do in the future. Numerous local and even not so local musicians speak about how Chris touched their lives in the past few days, and even though out heart strings are pulled every time, those of us that knew him know just how honored it is to be able to say that was my friend. He helped aspiring musicians become professional musicians and helped professional musicians strive to be better. He had sense of humor like few before him with a contagious laugh that made all around him chuckle. We hate to see a friend of our leave like this so sudden and abrupt, we hate that we will never hear that chuckle and laugh again, we hate that he will never lay down that sweet soulful groove he had on bass again. The corner he frequented is darker with the loss of his light, but we hope that we and others can learn from him as a person and mentor. Maybe we can carry on his tradition of helping the up can comers like he did, maybe we can help those get to where we are or even further in the industry than us. We hope we can make a small impact on this world, and if our impact can be even half the size of Chris' impact then our life would be a success. RIP Chris Carroll, you will forever live on in our hearts and prayers. for his family and other friends, our hearts and prayers go out to you in this time of sadness.

That's Right......the title says it all. Last night we here at Jukebox Revolver took the stage at Tailgator's and we had an absolute blast. The crowd was energetic and amazing. We got them dancing with in the first two songs and had them dancing the entire night. As a group of musicians who feeds off the crowds energy, what an exhilarating experience to play gig like that. Nick as he walked outside on break overheard a few phone calls of our now friends telling their friends to come down and see this amazing band. We are honored by comments like that and we thank each and every one of you whom we over hear saying that, lol it strokes our egos in just the right way......just kidding about that last statement, to say the least its always pleasing and lets us know we are on the right track. So last of all we would just like to officially thank everyone who has come out and supported us, We play for you all, and if it wasn't for a great group of people we call friends, or fans......nope we like to call everyone friends, if it wasn't for your support we wouldn't be able to play as much as we do, and we just want to express our gratitude to everyone for that. We will keep our promise of trying to learn the music you all will like so keep on asking for requests at each show so we know which songs to play you all. See you all soon

It's Official, we are now proud members of Gigmasters.com, So for all you interested in Booking us for private parties and events, look at our new gigmasters page, and pass it on. As we seem to be picking up momentum and growing at a very fast pace, we thought gig masters seemed like the perfect fit, so we joined it. We hope to see everyone very soon and for all our friends that keep spreading the word and those who keep coming out and supporting us, we would also like to show you our appreciation by saying thank you and to keep up the hard work on your end and we will keep up the hard work on your end. Tah Tah for now lmao

We would like to thank everyone that has been coming out to see us. We have been real bust lately as you all can see, but we would like to thank everyone for their support. We would like to thank Finnigan's Wake for letting us start off the month with them, and we would like to thank Tee Time Sports and Spirits, it was a fun night and we made some new friends from a new venue for us. We have a handful of dates now so we will be back. It was a blast playing the new Cooper's Ale house, we saw some old faces and some new ones and we cant wait to be back there either. Tonight we are Taking the stage at The Corner Bar so wish us luck if you cant be there and if you can be there, then come and get your drink on lol

With the departure of the great Wilton Hailey on bass, Jukebox Revolver would love to introduce the amazingly talented Mr. Jeff Hatley to the band. Hatley brings high hopes and a very professional sound to Jukebox Revolver. here is a short bio of Mr. Hatley.

Jeff Hatley who is originally from Charlotte embarked upon a lifelong musical career in grade school bands and orchestras on various wind instruments, and found his passion for the bass at the suggestion of friends. After first developing callouses on influences of The Doobie Brothers, Earth Wind and Fire, and The Eagles, he moved to prog. rock via Yes who remains one of his favorites learning the melodic role demonstrated by Chris Squire. Jeff's skill as a quick learner and solid reader found him opportunities in big band jazz, churches, and even a show with The Fifth Dimension on a tour stop in Charlotte. He adopted cello as an adult and set bass aside for a number of years performing with The Charlotte Philharmonic Orchestra. A job transfer resulted in his relocating to central Carolina where he resumed bass along with cello in numerous bands, having some amazing opportunities opening for groups such as STYX, ZZ TOP, Leon Russell, Eddie Money, Toad the Wet Sproket, as well as live broadcast appearances on WUNC and WCNC TV. Jeff is employed as a design engineer in a multinational electronics firm but holds musical performance with great friends and players as his continuing ambition. Jukebox Revolver is a cherished opportunity furthering this endeavor.

Well, we would love to thank everyone that came out to see us at McPhearson's, I know Nick and I saw a lot of familiar faces and friends from our time in TCU, As you all can see we are picking up momentum every week it seems, we have new dates getting added constantly and new venues contacting us regularly, so stay tuned and we hope to see you all soon, by the way we are all loaded up and waiting for to end becuase we are heading up to River Ridge Tap House again tonight from 7:30-9:30. So if you are in the Clemmons Area, swing on by and grab a drink and something to eat with us.

So friends and family of Jukebox Revolver, We would like to announce and welcome the newest addition to the band Mr. Antawon Ingram. For a few months now we were gigging as a three piece band in search of that perfect vocalist and front man to take our band to the next level, and as a bunch of professional musicians who will not settle we sifted through many applications when all of a sudden Mr. Ingram sends Danny some info on facebook. Well, Danny was blown away by both his stage presence and his vocal ability that he immediately forward the information to all the members of the band. After they see the video they all agree let's get him to come and play and see how it works out, well it just so happens Antawon was coming to see us Friday night as we were set to play Ham's and we invited him out. Well, Antawon can sing, and I mean sing. So we had a gig the following night at Finnigan's Wake in Winston and he already knew 3/4's of the songs already from being in various bands too. From the first note, he sang to the last we were all smiles as we looked at each other was we played. We found the man and the perfect fit for the Job. We asked him to join us and he accepted so now we announce the lead singer of Jukebox Revolver is the immensely talented Mr. Antawon Ingram. We look forward to a bigger and brighter future as we move on with him at the helm.